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Ubuntu's trust problem in 4 concrete issues - verified facts, no FUD
(media.piefed.social)
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this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2026
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Strong agree. I use a derivative that blocks snaps instead of direct Kubuntu now, and it wasn't Just because of the snaps.
Without Ubuntu Pro subscription the entire Universe repository does not receive any security updates by Canonical:
https://canonical.com/blog/ubuntu-pro-enhanced-security-and-manageability-for-linux-desktop
You should consider switching to an entirely independent distribution that does not lock security updates behind a paywall, perhaps something based directly on Debian or Fedora.
Update: Correction. While you do get five years of security updates for Universe on an Ubuntu LTS, those are updates done by the ubuntu community, not canonical. To get Universe security updates from Canonical, you do have to sign up to Ubuntu pro, which can be done without any payment, but as I describe in my original comment, does require creating an account.
While Canonical deserves the criticisms leveled by op (that I agree with), it's also incorrect to say that they lock security updated behind a paywall.
Anyone that does use Ubuntu gets security updated until they stop supporting that particular release version, which iirc is for six years (I may be wrong, thus is from memory).
If you want extended security updates for a specific version of the os, you can elect to sign up to Ubuntu pro without paying any money. You do have to make an account, and if you so choose you can populate the account info with garbage info and a disposable email, and you'll get extended security updates for that release version.
I quoted the relevant part and yet you still don't understand that Universe is explicitly not covered by security support by Canonical without Ubuntu Pro.
Yes, home users can sign up for Ubuntu Pro for free which means repository access is tracked on an account level. How isn't this more shitty than for example plain Debian?
Debian also doesn't offer security upgrades for contrib and non-free.
Only main is officially supported.
Same as Ubuntu, security upgrades for additional repos are handled by the community, not the distro maintainers themselves.
The updates available through Ubuntu Pro wouldn’t have normally been available prior to Pro. It’s an added service, not something that was previously available that is now locked behind a paywall. There are plenty of reasons to not like Canonical but this isn’t one.
I didn't say anything about it having changed, so your "now" is disingenuous. Fact is, update support by Canonical for Universe is locked behind Ubuntu Pro. Non-Ubuntu distributions such as CachyOS/Fedora/Bazzite/openSUSE/Debian/... don't have this hostile behaviour.
They also don’t provide those updates. I am a Fedora guy by the way. I’m not defending Canonical, just pointing out that this is a silly reason to dislike them.
Fedora allows all updates that do not break compatibility. To update packages in Universe means adhering to overly zealous version number freeze policy, whereas leaf packages in Fedora can be updates without much fuss. I contributed a small number (only two or three) of updates to Fedora packages years ago. Nothing was a core package, only tiny stand-alone utilities, so the stuff that would be in Universe under Ubuntu, but they had new version numbers. Updates were accepted by the maintainers without much trouble.
So you should know that I'm right.
Right, but if you’re after the level of “stability” that Canonical is offering, where are you getting it for free? Maybe there is another place but none that I’m aware of. I think it is perfectly fine for them to charge for that, especially if enterprise customers are the target audience and those who aren’t don’t have to pay for it.
Fedora, Alma Linux, openSUSE Leap, LMDE,...
They’re giving you 10 years of updates on those packages for free? I know Alma is from Tux Care but that extended support comes at a price as well. Leap is two years. LMDE support ends soon after the newest version. Fedora gets 13 months after the newest version I believe. Maybe I’m wrong on some of those but none of those come close to the free support canonical provides on LTS or Pro.
And they do that without requiring anybody to sign up for a Pro plan. Ubuntu ships unmaintained software to people who don't sign up for Pro. That's a fact.
What's a better alternative that uses apt and KDE and has relatively up-to-date packages (other than Debian testing)?
Linux mint Debian Edition, and just install KDE yourself ig, otherwise MX linux KDE
May I ask why you seem to be married to the use of
apt?~~Just couldn't pass up on the opportunity to insert this banger.~~
What's wrong with Debian?
I already know about it, so there's no need to tell me.
Debian Sid!
Fedora offers apt. AFAIK not by default, so it has to be installed via dnf first but then it's available.
It's been like that for years.
It's not KDE, but I think Linux Mint Cinnamon is a no-brainer for somebody who really just wants to use ubuntu.
However, as a long time Mint fan I recently had reason to switch to Debian 13 w/ KDE Plasma and it is pretty great.
Saying this is like screaming "I don't know anything about Ubuntu except that I hate it!!!!"
I posted a screenshot from Ubuntu's own blog. So they hate themselves and lie to the world?
Ubuntu Pro is free for personal use on up to five machines.
Also note that Universe is the community-maintained repository, sort of like the AUR but the community also reviews package creations. The Main repository is maintained by the Ubuntu Project and has always had free security updates.
If you're not paying for the product, you are the product.
Debian is free for any use for an unlimited number of machines without corporate tracking which packages you install.
So I guess with Debian, you are the product.
Debian is a community, not a product.
Interesting. I can use a community for my OS? So every time I hear someone say "install debian", they're telling me to install a community?
Either way, it's free, so I'm still the product.
it's free, because people have decided to come together and volunteer to create something that is beneficial to them, allows them to express themselves, and distribute it for free to better other people's lives and contribute to human existence. Part of their motivation to create such a thing is to not have the users be the product.
When there is a soup kitchen for homeless people, the homeless people are not a product.
Debian is a community.
Debian GNU/Linux is a non-commercial Linux distribution, ergo not a product.
Client-side data collection is opt-in and open-source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/canonicals-ubuntu-telemetry/ If you're talking server-side collection we don't know about, I'd call for burden of proof since neither Ubuntu nor Debian have relevant history of collection and that would probably violate the Privacy Policy.
It's maintained by my hardware OEM (Tuxedo) and I'm not even sure it has Universe - most things are flatpaks.
Maybe it was just me, but Kubuntu was also the least stable distro I've tried on my gaming laptop. Constant crashes and random reboots.
I've had zero issues with Mint.
I started out with Ubuntu a little over a year ago. Then came an update that removed the ability to change the brightness of my desktop's monitor. Felt like an Apple move, so I gave Mint another go. Have really enjoyed it (though I'm starting to eye CachyOS since Mint has seemingly decided to comply in advance with the CA age-verification law--haven't added anything yet, but say they will)
i still have a server running ubuntu
i run snaps on it ewwwww!
it has never fucked me over